IRELAND

"Ireland, a large island of Europe, W of Great Britain,
between lon. 6 and 10, 40 W, and lat. 51, 15 and 55, 13 N, 280m. long and
160 broad, and containing 19,436,000 acres divided up into 4 provinces;
Ulster N, Leinster E, Munster S, and Connaught to the W, and subdivided
into 32 counties. ... The climate is in general more temperate than that
of other countries in the same latitude; at the same time it is much more
inclined to moisture ... The face of the country is level; it is well watered
with lakes and rivers, and the soil, in most parts, good and fertile. A
remarkable feature of this country is the extensive bogs, estimated at
2,330,000 English acres. Corn, hemp, and flax are produced in great plenty;
beef and butter are exported; and hides, wool, tallow, wood, salt, honey,
and wax, are articles of commerce. ... The principal manufacture is fine
linen cloth, which is brought to great perfection, and the trade in it
is very great. Ireland is well adapted to trade, on account of its numerous
secure and commodious bays and harbours. The principal rivers are the Shannon,
Bandon, Lee, Blackwater or Broadwater, Liffey, Boyne, Sure, Burrow, Slane,
and Bann; lakes, lough Neagh, or the lake of Killarney, the most distingished
for its beauties, lough Erne, and lough Corrib. The established religion
is Protestant, though the majority of the people are Catholics." [From
The New London Gazetteer (1826)]

These GENUKI/Ireland pages provide information related to the entire
"Island of Ireland" and, as with the rest of GENUKI, are organised
according to the historic administrative boundaries, rather than present-day
ones, since these are most relevant ones for genealogical purposes.

If you have come directly to this page, and hence GENUKI, for the
first time I would recommend that you first take the "Front Door"
(GENUKI Home Page) route and explore
from there so as to learn where else in the GENUKI pages you might find
information and tutorial material of relevance to your research.

NOTE: If you have some expertise in both Irish Genealogy and
basic web page contruction, and might be interested in taking over the
further development of any of the GENUKI/Ireland
county pages, please take a look at the GENUKI Help
Us page and then contact Richard White, circman@hotmail.com
.

Archives and Libraries

The fact that in 1922 the Republic of Ireland was created and six of
the nine counties forming the province of Ulster (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry,
and Tyrone) voted to remain part of the United Kingdom, effects the
location of various records. Moreover, because England ruled Ireland for
much of its history, many records pertaining to Ireland are to be found
in English repositories.

Both the National Archives and the Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland collect records for all of Ireland. The National
Archives contains records previously held by the Public Record Office
at Four Courts, Dublin and by the State Paper Office in Dublin (neither
of which exists today). The Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland has a fairly complete collection
of church records (all denominations), for all of Northern Ireland, plus
many other holdings. (Note: For records before 1926, check also with the
National Archives in Dublin.)

The National Library of Ireland
is Ireland's main repository of 'filmed' Catholic parish registers. Other
holdings include newspapers, city and regional directories, estate records,
the Householders Index and Griffith's Primary Valuation.
(Online catalogue
now available.)

Cemeteries

Some gravestone inscriptions have been transcribed by Ireland's county
heritage centres - see individual county pages. Gravestone inscriptions
that have been transcribed by other organizations or individuals are listed
in:

Census

Virtually all 19th century census returns have been destroyed but the
Irish censuses for 1901 and 1911 may be examined at The National Archives
in Bishop Street, Dublin 8, Ireland. Surnames indexes exist for some census
localities - see Smith's Genealogical Source Index: Ireland

Old age pension records preserve some of the information from the 1841
and 1851 census which were largely destroyed in 1922. See:

Tithe Applotment books, Griffith's
Primary Valuation records, and later land valuation records are also
valuable census substitutes, because they record the names of the owners
or occupiers of the land. These are described in the Irish Times site under
Land
Records.

Chronology

Church Records

Church records include records of births or christenings, marriages,
and sometimes deaths or burials. These records were kept in the Parish
Registers. In 1876, a law was passed requiring that the Church of Ireland
parish registers be sent to the Public Record Office in Dublin for safekeeping.
This law was amended in 1878 to allow parishes with good storage facilities
to retain their records, so not all parish records were sent to Dublin,
and others were copied before being sent. Thus, many Church of Ireland
records remain, even though the records sent to Dublin were destroyed in
1922 when the Public Record Office burned.

Civil registration commenced in 1864 but many Irish records were destroyed
in 1922. Records from 1864 to 1922, for all Ireland, and from 1922 for
the Republic are held at the Office of the Registrar General, Joyce House,
8-11 Lombard Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Northern Irish records since 1922
are held at the GRO, Oxford House, Chichester Street, Belfast, Northern
Ireland, BT1 4HL.

Margaret Falley, Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research provides
a good description of court records and lists repositories and published
inventories of court records. Many of the published inventories she notes
are available at the Family History Library.

Directories

Directories for Dublin first appeared in the early eighteenth century
and continue today. Provincial (town) directories began somewhat later
and have continued only sporadically. See the Directories
- at the Irish Times site.

Emigration and Immigration

Extensive information, including lots of references to (printed) sources
on Irish Emigration is given in the Irish Times' site under Emigration
- the Famine.

John Grenham and the Irish Times have produced an
online genealogy guide based on Grenham's 1992 book "Tracing Your
Irish Ancestors". (Direct links to appropriate parts of this guide
are given under relevant topic headings on this page.) The guide includes
an "expert
system designed to provide comprehensive information about records
relevant to a particular Irish ancestor" - for fee-paying subscribers
only.

What to do if your ancestor (or any of his or her siblings) was born,
married or died in Ireland after 1863?

What to do if your ancestor (or any of his or her siblings) was of
a religious domination other than Catholic, and married in Ireland after
1844?

What to do if your ancestor was not born, did not marry, and did not
die in Ireland after 1863 and you do not know where in Ireland he or she
came from?

What to do if your ancestor was not born and did not marry or die in
Ireland after 1863, but you know where in Ireland he or she came from?

What to do if your ancestor lived in Ireland before the nineteenth
century, and you know where in Ireland he or she came from?

What to do if your ancestor lived in Ireland before the nineteenth
century, but you do not know where in Ireland he or she came from?

Heraldry

The records of the Genealogical Office (2 Kildare Street,Dublin
2, Ireland) deal mainly with heraldry (mostly relating to English Lords
who were transplanted to Ireland as landowners). The office's holdings
include information extracted from records that were destroyed when the
Public Records Office burned.

See also:

Eddie Geoghegan's Coats
of Arms in Ireland - a large collection of representations of coats
of arms of Irish families/clans.

O'Toole, James. NEWSPLAN: Report of the NEWSPLAN project in Ireland
(2nd. ed.). British Library in association with the National Library
of Ireland (1998). [Lists the known holdings of the newspapers of Ireland,
giving years of coverage and where held]

The National Library, in Dublin, has the largest collection of newspapers
in Ireland, but see also:

Occupations

Many Irish people were agricultural labourers or small farmers, for
which few records exist. However, for other occupations the situation is
much better. A detailed description of the various types of Records
concerning Occupations is given at the Irish Times site.

Taxation

Many Irish tax records were lost in 1922 when the Public Records Office
burned. Important surviving ones include Tithe Applotment books and Griffith's
Primary Valuation. These are described in the Irish Times site under Land
Records.

NOTE: If you have some expertise in both Irish Genealogy and
basic web page contruction, and might be interested in taking over the
further development of any of the GENUKI/Ireland
county pages, please take a look at the GENUKI Help
Us page and then contact Richard White, circman@hotmail.com
.